Glossary

This glossary provides definitions of data items presented on the Sexual offending dashboard.

Adult offenders

Offenders proceeded against for a sexual offence who were aged 18 years or over at the time of their first or only police proceeding in the reference period.

Age group of offenders

Age group based on the date of first police proceeding in the reference period. This is the date of police proceeding for a sexual offence for individuals with one sexual offence incident in the reference period, or the earliest date of police proceeding for individuals with more than one police proceeding for a sexual offence incident.

Age of victims

The age of a victim is their age in years on the date of the sexual offence. For all data except those provided by Victoria Police, we calculated the age by using the victim’s date of birth and the start date of the sexual offence. For Victorian data, which excluded date of birth, we used the variable provided by police for the victim’s age at the time of the offence.

We used offence names or descriptions and the police-recorded age of the victim, where applicable, to identify offenders proceeded against for child sexual offences and non-child sexual offences. For any offences where the victim’s age was inconsistent with the offence description, we changed the age to a missing value and classified the offence in a category consistent with the offence description. If these victims had any other sexual offences alleged to have been perpetrated against them with offence names that did not specify an age, their age was not changed. This affected our ability to calculate the number of offenders proceeded against for child and non-child offences. It should also be noted some offenders proceeded against for child sexual offences may not have had identified victims.

Alleged sexual offender

Alleged sexual offenders are persons who police have initiated action against or proceeded against for one or more sexual offences in the 12-month reference period. Action includes arrest, caution and summons on a date in the reference period. Persons aged less than 10 years at the time of a sexual offence in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia or Tasmania were excluded as they were below the age of criminal responsibility in those states during the reference period. Persons aged less than 12 years at the time of a sexual offence in the Australian Capital Territory or the Northern Territory were excluded as they were below the age of criminal responsibility in those jurisdictions during the reference period. Hereafter, alleged sexual offenders are referred to as offenders.

Child sexual abuse material

Child sexual abuse material offences involve conduct pertaining to material that sexually depicts children. Every Australian jurisdiction has specifically criminalised the possession, distribution and production of child sexual abuse material.

Child sexual offence

Child sexual offences were defined in the way the relevant jurisdiction categorised the applicable offence type. For penetrative or non-penetrative sexual conduct offences, a child sexual offence is an offence against a child under the age of consent in that jurisdiction. The age of consent is 16 years in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, and 17 years in South Australia and Tasmania (Dowling et al. 2024). For persistent sexual abuse and enabling unlawful sexual conduct offences, children are defined consistent with the laws of the relevant jurisdiction. To identify CSAM offences, we used the offence description and applied the relevant jurisdiction’s definition of a child with reference to their depiction, description or other representation in the sexual material. For these offences, the definition of a child in relation to their representation in sexual material is specified as under 16 years in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory; under 17 years in South Australia; and under 18 years in Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory (Dowling et al. 2024). These variations may mean CSAM offences include victims with different age ranges for different jurisdictions.

Enabling unlawful sexual conduct

Enabling offences involve various forms of conduct undertaken with the intent of enabling unlawful sexual conduct. These include:

  • coercion—making another person do something against their will through the use of violence, force or intimidation, specifically with the intent of engaging in unlawful sexual conduct of some kind;
  • deception and trickery—unlawful sexual conduct committed against victims procured through false pretence, false or misleading representation, or fraud; deceptive recruitment of victims into delivering sexual services; and deception regarding sexual health status in the context of sex work;
  • use of substances—coercive or deceptive administration of intoxicating substances to render a victim incapacitated so as to allow the offender to engage in unlawful sexual conduct against them;
  • procuring, grooming and encouragement—enticing or persuading a person into engaging in unlawful sexual conduct. Because of the nature of this conduct, the offences relate mostly to victims who are children or young people;
  • incitement—offences that involve offenders encouraging or making (through whatever means) another person commit a sexual offence;
  • facilitation—any conduct that aids or enables another person to commit a sexual offence or to avoid apprehension for a sexual offence;
  • causing a child to perform sexual services—conduct that results in a child providing commercial sexual services.

Handling of unlawful sexual material

Handling of unlawful sexual material includes image-based sexual abuse and conduct pertaining to child sexual abuse material.

Image-based sexual abuse

Image-based sexual abuse involves taking and/or distributing an intimate image or recording without the consent of the person depicted, or threatening to take and distribute such material. This material can include depictions of a person engaged in a sexual act, or images of a person’s breasts, genitals or anal region.

Index event

An offender’s index event is the only or first police proceeding for a sexual offence or offences in the reference period. The offender’s age at police proceeding is based on the date of this first police proceeding. Offenders proceeded against for more than one offence type in an index event are counted separately for each offence type where offence types are disaggregated, but they are included only once in the total number of offenders.

Indigenous status

In the police data extracts provided to the Australian Institute of Criminology, the Indigenous status of some offenders was recorded inconsistently across police proceedings. This dashboard categorises an offender as Indigenous if they were identified in the data as Indigenous and not non-Indigenous in the reference period. Further, it categorises an offender as non-Indigenous if they were identified in the data as non-Indigenous and not as Indigenous in the reference period. Finally, the report assigns a not stated or unknown status to any offenders or victims identified in the data as both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Tasmania Police derived an Indigenous status variable for offenders that did not contain any such inconsistencies.

Non-child sexual offence

For penetrative or non-penetrative sexual conduct offences and image-based sexual abuse offences, non-child sexual offences are offences involving victims aged 16 years and over in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory, and 17 years and over in South Australia and Tasmania. For enabling unlawful sexual conduct offences, non-child sexual offences are offences not involving children as defined by the relevant jurisdiction.

Non-penetrative sexual conduct

Non-penetrative sexual conduct includes a range of other behaviours involving nonconsensual sexual physical contact without penetration. These refer broadly to conduct of a sexual nature, including sexualised touching or touching of the genitalia, and sexual behaviours or gestures in the presence of a victim.

Offence type

Sexual offences are categorised into broad types of conduct based on categories developed by an extensive national review of child sexual abuse and sexual assault legislation in Australia by the Australian Institute of Criminology. The categories are: penetrative or non-penetrative sexual conduct, persistent sexual abuse, handling of unlawful sexual material (including image-based sexual abuse and conduct pertaining to child sexual abuse material), and conduct done to enable unlawful sexual conduct.

Penetrative sexual conduct

Penetrative sexual conduct is defined as non-consensual sexual intercourse with or penetration (to any extent) of another person. This does not include penetration carried out for proper medical or hygienic purposes, or any other purpose authorised by law.

Persistent sexual abuse

Persistent sexual abuse offences apply in circumstances where a child has been subjected to ongoing patterns of sexual abuse in which repeated instances of sexual offending are perpetrated by an offender over a period of time.

Proceeded against

A legal action initiated by police against an alleged offender for an offence or offences.

Reference period

The relevant financial year.

Relationship with primary victim

This refers to the offender’s relationship to the only victim if one victim was involved in the sexual offending or the closest relationship to a victim if more than one victim was involved. The closest relationship is intimate partner (including former intimate partners), followed by non-intimate partner family member, non-family member known to victim and stranger.

Sexual offence

A sexual offence includes any offence in Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC) Division 03: Sexual offences (ABS 2023a, 2011). Division 03 defines sexual offences as ‘acts, or intent of acts, of a sexual nature against another person which are non-consensual or where consent cannot be given’ (ABS 2023a).

Youth offenders

Offenders aged under 18 years at the time of their first or only police proceeding for a sexual offence in the reference period.